Ball consolidates plants

Ball Corporation is closing an older plastic container plant in
Sioux City, Iowa, US, and shifting the manufacturing operations to
its Ames, Iowa , plant, which will be expanded.

Ball Corporation is closing an older plastic container plant in
Sioux City, Iowa, US, and shifting the manufacturing operations to
its Ames, Iowa plant, which will be expanded.

The company said in a press release on Tuesday that the plant
consolidation will take place before the end of the year and will
begin to add to earnings in 2003.

Closing the Sioux City plant, which Ball acquired last year,
will cost about $850,000 (€868,000). The costs were accounted for
when Ball acquired Wis-Pak Plastics in December 2001 . The 75
employees at the Sioux City plant will be offered severance
packages and can apply for positions at the Ames plant.

It wasn't immediately clear how many additional jobs will be
available at the expanded Ames plant, on which the company said it
will spend $9 million to increase production capacity.

Ball makes plastic and metal packaging for the food and beverage
industries.